LONDON, September 22, 2008 - A "Grabber" makes its smooth, deliberate descent into a swarm of transparent animal balloons, in the latest spot from director Reuben Sutherland of Joyrider. Created via Fallon, London, for Orange, the ad is an elegant visual statement touting the communication company's Pay As You Go program, which allows customers to choose from an array of rewards.

This beautiful piece of film connects the clouds of the Orange balloons with the sleek, smooth, modern claw. Like the hand of a gentle giant, the grabber's claw moves with a strong deliberate motion, pausing only to let a swirling group of balloons gently float out of the way. The backdrop for the action is a timeless factory building, adding an extra touch of class to the proceedings.

At spot's end, the massive unfolding robot takes hold of a single dolphin-shaped balloon, signifying the selection of the perfect reward (Orange reward plans are named for animals, hence the dolphin, canary, racoon, and camel-shaped balloons).

Tech Talk: "Reuben spent a weekend crafting a miniature grabber-end out of plasticine, which he then took into Afterfx to tweak textures and colours," explains Joyrider EP Spencer Friend, who produced the spot. "Eventually, our 3D guys used this sculpture to create the 3D files. The rest of the grabber was actually styled and based on a combination of super 8mm cameras and sound recording devices. The grabber was made as a CG object using photo elements as much as possible for texturing."

Sutherland chose as his background location the Battersea Power Station, and shot the animal balloons on set against a mobile green screen. "We filmed the balloons on location to match the lighting and reflections of the environment, with some additional light sources to enhance the balloon's aesthetics," says Friend. DP Jonas Mortenson suggested shooting on the Red camera, which nicely complemented the lighting conditions. The animal balloons were shot on various rotating rigs, to achieve a sense of natural movement and to capture interesting light reflections.

Once the production team had an edit of the location plates, the HD data was transferred via a technical grade and conformed. The artists proceded to the layout stage, and on from there to the animation and compositing of the grabber. The ballons were then rotoscoped, animated, multiplied, scaled and composited within the location back plates.

Sutherland is currently at work on Playstation Resistance 2 (TBWA London). His recent spot projects include T-Mobile (Saatchi London), and Teletext (CHI London). The director has also done notable work for Becel, Mini, and Coca-Cola. He has helmed music videos for The Doves and Phoenix Foundation.

About Joyrider

Client: Orange Pay As You go
Spot Title: Grabber
Air Date: September 22, 2008

Agency: Fallon, London
CD: Tony McTear
Creatives: Dave Lang & Matin Gillan
Agency Producer: Lauraine Bhuglah

Production Company: Joyrider
Director: Reuben Sutherland
Producer: Spencer Friend
DP: Jonas Mortenson

3D Animation: Joyrider: Matt Westrup, Christian Jelen & Russell Boyd
Compositing: Framestore: Stephanie Mills
Grading: Smoke & Mirrors: Gary Szabo